I worked at Gamers.com between 1999 and 2001, helping to build a giant database covering every game ever made. It was a great chance for me to learn about the game industry, to experience working game journalism in a dynamic team setting, and to help spend other people's money as fast as possible before the Internet buzz wore off.

Gamers.com hit the thin outside edge of the internet bubble just as it went pop. Covered in soapy water, the ex-gamers exployees went their separate ways. Our hardcore PC gaming sister site FiringSquad continues on. The PC games reviews team scattered here and there - one of them now works forensics in a crime lab. The boys who covered console video games went back to Ziff-Davis, to Electronic Gaming Monthly, to Xbox Nation, GameSpot or maybe to GameSpy, largely back into the same business. The site programmers formed a separate company, Lithium, and they make site technology still. The men in paper gaming, or "unplugged gaming", as we called it, most of them now lend a hand at Ogre Cave, and various jobs in the role-playing game news industry. There actually is a role-playing game news industry!

A few stragglers stayed on, to see if Gamers.com might make a viable business in another form. One of those people was Joel, my old boss, the person who used to do a little bit of everything. I had lunch with him back in June. Slowly, over fat fresh sandwiches, it became clear that he has stayed in touch with someone from nearly every part the company. And not only because Joel is a friendly guy, but also because a social network of old co-workers were now independent businesspeople who were helping each other start a half-dozen small ventures in the wake of Gamers.com Arena1337, a California cybercafe consulting business. A web hosting service. System administrators. Web site builders. Graphic designers. And Joel's new site, AnswerBag.com - a sort of expertise aggregation, hand-built on time bought with layoff checks..